


aerial

by kalypsobean



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Pining, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:47:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22636183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalypsobean/pseuds/kalypsobean
Relationships: Aisha Campbell/Kimberly Hart
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	aerial

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jen425](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/gifts).



There was a time when she couldn't imagine doing anything like this; a time when the highest she ever flew was ten feet in the air, through a cloud of chalk and hairspray and accompanied by a hum of conversation and laughter. 

This was different; this was wind beating on her skin, raindrops misting through her hair as they dissolved just as quickly as they formed. This was the sun, so close and bright that she'd been burned more than once; this was air free of smog and exhaust that made the ground feel cloistered and grey and dull. 

There was a time in between when the skies were hers, when she flew and the last thing on her mind was the way the wind felt on her skin, or why she felt more at home there than she ever did on the beam; there wasn't time for thinking.

She'd dismissed the itching beneath her shoulders; anxiety wasn't new to her, and there was so much going on, with her mom leaving and moving in with the Campbells and things being as they were with the team. It had happened before, it always went away if she just focused until things calmed down around her, and of course, a new house, a new room, things were bound to be rough on her skin as she settled in (and spandex never helped with a rash, if she designed the uniforms she certainly would have chosen something breathable, at least). And of course it would hurt to leave; the team was her family, her life, and that's why she had to go. 

There was a time, also in between, where she'd thought ten feet was as high as she'd ever go on her own, and she flew only as far as it took to land a triple without bobbling; when landing felt like a disappointment she couldn't explain.

There was a time when her world narrowed to one room, her vision as grey as the concrete floor she'd slid to and the lightning-scarred images on a lightbox on the wall above her.

"It's normal for people like you." The team doctor was as dispassionate and inscrutable as usual, as if he couldn't quite make himself interested in her as a person rather than an investment. "Just start supplementing your calcium and take it easy while it heals." 

"What's normal?" she said, and she remembers her voice feeling not quite like her own, like it had been muted and was coming from far away, like over a loudspeaker somewhere else.

"People who've met their soulmate young, of course," he said. "Your wings won't finish growing for a few years yet, especially with your training schedule, but they will spread."

"My soulmate," she said, and everything made sense and fell apart.

"You'll have your wings when you see them again," the doctor said. "And so will they." She brushed away the hand on her arm and stumbled back to the gym, to the vault, ignoring the pain in her arm as she tried to snatch a single moment of stillness from midair.

There was a time when she flew alone, sometimes for hours, as if the sky was the only place she felt at home and if she just spent enough time up there, everything would be okay. It was a time when she didn't notice the little things, but craved the peace and the open space and the vast stretches of nothing so badly that even flying as far as her body would let her wasn't enough to dull the ache. There was no point to rage or pain, then, for the distance was as inevitable as the passing of time, and every gold speck on the horizon faded as surely as the sun would set, taking with it everything but the black-blue night; it couldn't be fixed. 

And then there was a _twisting_ in her gut, like the world was reordered and something was very very wrong. For a moment, she was grateful to be on the ground, though the park was loud and busy and filled with memory; for a moment, the world was grey again, and then it was yellow, and she didn't even know how, just that she had to reach out and make sure that when everything stopped moving, she wouldn't be alone again.

"I missed you, how is this... Oh. Oh my Gosh," said Aisha. "It's you." 

And the wrongness, the immense sadness, was washed away because Aisha's wings were the same yellow-pink-white as hers, and she didn't have to be alone, didn't have to pretend, because Aisha knew, Aisha understood, Aisha was _here_. She lifted her head and smiled and her braids caught the light and all Kimberly wanted right at that second was to show Aisha her sky, the sky they'd protected together and where she'd waited... 

... but the sky was different now, alive and bright and clean. The clouds seemed to part for them, and just far enough away that she wasn't sure it was really there, a faint glimmer of a golden wave seemed to dance across the ocean and beyond the horizon. This was different; this was the brush of a hand against hers, this was laughter on a breeze she made as she pulled them higher, this was being together.


End file.
